#Trump faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in connection w/a #HushMoney payment made to a porn star to influence the 2016 election. The case could be in the jury’s hands as early as Wed.
charges are falsifying business records to hide #HushMoney payments in lead up to 2016 election to #influence electorate
just one Trump supporter at the courthouse draped in a Trump flag.
#StormyDaniels's lawyer, #KeithDavidson, to return to stand. He negotiated the hush-money payment at the center of the case, & is expected to lay out details of the deal.
The prosecution asks that the defense be precluded from asking #StormyDaniels whether she was arrested. Justice #Merchan agrees w/the prosecutors, saying that “anybody can be arrested” & that it “doesn’t prove anything.”
The people call Stormy Daniels back to the stand
#Trump atty #Necheles begins questioning by saying that in 2011, Daniels denied having had sex w/Trump.
Cross-examination of #MichaelCohen resumes, an opportunity for the defense to poke holes in his testimony & perhaps trip up or provoke the state’s key witness. The questioning of Cohen, #Trump’s fmr fixer, is the beginning of the end of Trump’s #criminal trial, which began April 15 & might conclude before Memorial Day weekend at this pace.
Prosecutors in Trump’s #criminal trial say he has violated a #GagOrder barring him from attacking #witnesses, #jurors & others close to the case. Testimony is set to resume later Tuesday morning.
Testimony started w/a bang last week as David #Pecker, the fmr publisher of The #NationalEnquirer, said that he had entered into a secret plot w/ #Trump & #MichaelCohen to #CatchAndKill negative stories about Trump as he ran for president in 2016. #GaryFarro, the 3rd to testify, started off w/dry details about banking transactions. But #Farro is leading us to the #HushMoney payment
A #juror was quickly dismissed at the start. She was among the 7 already selected, she said she was very worried that despite the fact the court ruled to keep jurors’ name secret, she would still be exposed & targeted.
#Republican-appointed judges raise alarm over #Trump attacks on #law
Federal DC Judge #ReggieWalton warned Trump’s attacks on #HushMoney trial judge & others could lead to #violence.
The Republican-appointed judge denounced Trump’s attacks against the judge presiding over his hush money trial in Manhattan & his daughter, calling them assaults on the #RuleOfLaw that could lead to violence & #tyranny.
#GagOrder Against #Trump Is Expanded to Stop Attacks on Judge’s Family
Donald Trump had in recent days targeted the daughter of Juan #Merchan, the judge overseeing his #criminal trial in Manhattan, in blistering social media posts.
The NY judge presiding over one (bc there’s >1) of Trump’s #criminal trials imposed a gag order on Tues that prohibits him from attacking #witnesses, #prosecutors & #jurors, the latest effort to rein in Trump’s wrathful rhetoric.
Trump has arrived at the Manhattan #criminal courthouse, where a jury will be picked to determine whether he broke state #law by falsifying business records when he reimbursed his lawyer for a hush money payment to keep an adult-film actress quiet about an alleged sexual tryst.
In closing arguments Tues, Trump’s lawyers are expected to cast #AllenWeisselberg as the prosecution’s missing piece, an elusive central player…. They will likely try to argue to the #jury that the case depends on #MichaelCohen, whose testimony provided the only evidence that #Trump had direct knowledge of the plot to disguise the #HushMoney reimbursement as #legal fees
@hotdogsladies More because I know you prefer to be correct than not [than being That Guy], His Corruptionness was the 45th POTUS, and you said 46th a few times on ROTL. The mnemonic is how they used to call his following “Cult 45”.
State Supreme Court judge blocked #Trump’s attempt to gain access to #NBC’s documentary material related to adult film actress #StormyDaniels.
Manhattan Judge Juan #Merchan said Trump atty’s subpoena was “far too broad” & did not meet the #legal standard to compel #NBCUniversal to turn over docs & other items related to the documentary “Stormy.”
Holy Moses!
"Donald J. Trump has been convicted of falsifying records to cover up a sex scandal that threatened his ascent to the White House in 2016, part of a scheme that prosecutors described as a fraud on the American people. He is the first American president to be declared a felon, a stain he will carry as he seeks to regain the presidency." - Jonah E. Bromwich and Ben Protess, NYT #trumptrial#hushmoney
"Sentencing is set for July 11 at 10 a.m.
That will put sentencing four days before the beginning of the Republican National Convention, at which Trump is expected to receive the party’s presidential nomination." - Michael Gold, Jesse McKinley, NYT